A couple of weeks ago artist Jenny Kendler opened “Other of Pearl,” a site-specific public art exhibition at Fort Jay on New York’s Governors Island. The show, which is presented by Governors Island Arts and the Natural Resources Defense Council, uses a variety of creative media to explore our planet’s changing climate. It’s the perfect exhibition to visit with the kids during the next heatwave, and Observer recently caught up with Kendler to hear about this ambitious presentation.

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I was invited by the Governors Island curatorial team to begin contemplating what a commission on the island would look like back in early 2021, so the exhibition has been in development for quite some time.

Regarding oysters, beach combing, shell collecting and appreciating the diverse forms of marine shellfish in general has been a lifelong passion. The central project of “Other of Pearl,” which takes the form of Greco-Roman sculptures grown inside of oysters, is an idea that probably germinated eight or nine years ago. I think it may have begun with a very rare abalone pearl which sat in a shell on a shelf in my California grandmother’s bathroom. The project sat in the back of my mind… I had no idea how to accomplish this somewhat crazy idea… but when I realized the Billion Oyster Project would be a neighbor to whatever exhibition we choose to produce, I knew that I was going to try to figure it out.

It took........

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